The nation's largest turkey producer said it was facing a shortage of fresh large birds weeks before Thanksgiving.

Butterball said its poultry had trouble gaining weight on some of its farms, but did not explain why.

The company still has ample supplies of its frozen large varieties, which are birds 16 pounds and heavier.

"We experienced a decline in weight gains on some of our farms causing a limited availability of large, fresh turkeys," Stephanie Llorente, a spokeswoman for Butterball, said in a written statement Friday. "While we are continuing to evaluate all potential causes, we are working to remedy the issue. We sincerely regret the inconvenience that some of our customers have experienced as a result of this issue."

Headquartered in Garner, N.C., Butterball produces 1 billion pounds of turkey every year, equal to 20% of the nation's production. The ubiquitous brand, known for its blue, gold and yellow label, is a mainstay in American kitchens every Thanksgiving.

Big Y Foods Inc., an East Coast supermarket chain, said orders of fresh large Butterball turkeys had been cut by 50% nationwide.

A spokeswoman for Ralphs said Butterball had informed the grocer of the shortage. She said Ralphs had enough supplies of whole turkeys through Butterball and other brands.

^ It's hard to eat like a pig in front of crowds -- and, no leftovers.

Also, consider that turkey demand is up *period* year over year - especially given the trend toward folks frying turkeys in addition to (or even instead of) baking them.

Don't laugh - the tradition has moved out of the Tea Party belt for two major reasons - faster cooking times and improvements in technology. While traditional propane/bottled-gas turkey frying has benefitted, the biggest benefits are in self-contained electric fryers large enough to easily swallow family-sized (fourteen standard pound) turkeys - which means you can fry a turkey as long as you have electricity.

Another reason not to laugh - once you have had a fried turkey, it becomes darn difficult to go back to baked - as even Butterball found out (the hard way - their traditionally pre-seasoned and frozen whole hen turkeys are woefully unsuitable for frying; until Butterball provided fresh hen turkeys, we went with Jennie-O fresh hen turkeys for frying).

With the electric fryers, I may start to consider fried turkey parts (wings, necks, drumsticks) in the colder months in addition to - or even instead of - fried chicken.